1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a machine room back cover integrated with a condenser for a refrigerator, which is capable of protecting a machine room in which a compressor as one of elements constituting a refrigeration cycle is provided and serving as a heat emission plate by which coolant heat emitted from a condenser is dissipated outside the refrigerator by contacting with air introduced from the external of the machine room.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, a refrigerator is an apparatus for freezing or refrigerating food and drink by lowering temperature within the refrigerator by use of cold air generated through a refrigeration cycle constituted by a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator.
FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view illustrating a structure of a machine room of a conventional refrigerator.
Referring to FIG. 1, a machine room 100 positioned in a rear bottom portion of the refrigerator contains a compressor 150 for pressurizing coolant evaporated into a low-temperature low-pressure gaseous state by the evaporator into a high-temperature high-pressure gaseous state, a condenser 120 connected to the compressor 150 for condensing the coolant pressurized by the compressor 150 into a room-temperature high-pressure liquid state, and a machine room back cover 110 for protecting the compressor 150 and the condenser 120.
FIG. 2 is a partial side sectional view of the refrigerator at which a conventional machine room back cover is fixed.
Referring to FIG. 2, the machine room back cover 110 for protecting the compressor 150 and the condenser 120 is fixed at the outside of the machine room 100 such that the compressor 150 and condenser 120 are isolated from air introduced from the external of the machine room 100.
As described above, since the conventional refrigerator incorporates the compressor 150 and the condenser 120 within the machine room 100, as shown in FIG. 1, the machine room 100 itself occupy most of a bottom portion of the refrigerator, and therefore, there is a problem that an inner space of the refrigerator cannot be utilized by the amount of space occupied by the machine room 100.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, since the machine room back cover 110 is fixed outside the machine room 100 such that the compressor and the condenser are isolated from air introduced from the external of the machine room so as not to make direct contact with each other, internal heat of the machine room 100 (i.e., waste heat generated by the temperature of the compressor itself raised by load of a motor (not shown) of the compressor 150 when the low-temperature low-pressure coolant is pressurized into the high-temperature high-pressure state, and coolant heat emitted around the condenser 120) and the like cannot be quickly emitted out of the machine room 100 through vents 140 of the back cover 110, resulting in the increase of internal temperature of the machines.
Further, the machine room back cover 110 itself cannot perform a function of a heat emission plate for emitting the coolant heat emitted around the condenser 120 out of the machine room 100 by heat convection phenomenon occurring when contacted with the air introduced from the external of the machine room 100. Accordingly, the coolant heat emitted around the condenser 120 cannot be smoothly emitted out of the machine room 100. This is another reason of the increase of the internal temperature of the machine room 100 as mentioned above.